MLB At Bat Updated with All-Star Game and Home Rub Derby Streaming

MLB At Bat for iOS has been updated for the upcoming All-Star Game and Home Run Derby, which are taking place next week, allowing paid subscribers to stream both events on their mobile devices for the first time ever.

MLB At Bat is an app that’s available for iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone devices that allows you to watch live baseball games right on your phone or tablet. The app itself is a free download, and a one-time $10 charge will get you access to all sorts of stats, highlights, replays and more for the rest of the season ($20 at the beginning of the season).

The app also allows baseball fans to keep up with their favorite team and the rest of league by checking out stats, schedules, standings, news and more.

However, in order to get the ability to stream any live game you want, you first have to shell out for an MLB.TV subscription. We suggest getting the MLB.TV Premium package, as that will get you full access to the MLB At Bat mobile app for free, as well as give you the option between home and away broadcast feeds. Plus, it’s only $20 more for the entire season, and you’ll be paying at least $110 anyway, so it’s a bargain upgrade.

If you’re a paid subscriber of MLB.TV Premium, you can stream any game to your mobile device all season long, just as long as you’re not watching a game in a blackout zone, which is by far the biggest complaint for MLB At Bat subscribers (more on that later). However, users will be able to stream the All-Star Game and the Home Run Derby, no matter where they’re located. In order to stream the All-Star Game and the Home Run Derby in the app, you’ll need an MLB.TV Premium subscription.

Aside from this big update, the app also received general performance improvements, as well as integration for alerts for breaking news in the news reader.

Subscriptions for just the MLB At Bat app remain the same as last season: $9.99 for the entire rest of the season this year or an auto-renewed $2.99 per month until the end of the season. If you’re not willing to pay up over $100 for a Premium subscription to MLB.TV, then a simple subscription to MLB At Bat is usually enough for the casual baseball fan. This allows users to listen to home or away radio broadcasts with no blackout restrictions, and you can still take advantage of the Game of the Day, which lets you watch one game per day for free, as long as you’re out of the blackout restricted zones.

Of course, if you’re thinking about streaming the All-Star Game or the Home Run Derby, you’re not just stuck with your smartphone or tablet. MLB.TV works with a ton of other streaming options, including the Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast, and even game consoles like the Xbox 360, PS4, Xbox One and PS4. This will allow you to watch the Midsummer Classic on the big screen without being tied down to a smaller device.

One big complaint, though, with MLB At Bat (as well as other live sports apps), is that it has blackout restrictions, meaning that if you live near the team you’re wanting to watch, you won’t be able to. This is to get more people to the stadium to watch the game, rather than just stay at home and watch it on the TV (and it also has to do with broadcast licensing rights and a whole bunch of other nonsense). It’s a clever move for the parties involved, but it’s really annoying for us fans.

There’s an easy way around blackout restrictions if you watch the games on your iOS or Android device, although the recent updates to MLB At Bat seem to block these methods, so your mileage may vary.